Marked for Baba Inusah
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 May 2028
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hasaacas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom8 May 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market8 May 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad8 May 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Baba Mensah and Hasaacas agree another 2 years.
Squad8 May 2028
Words exchanged at Hasaacas
Richmond Lamptey and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout8 May 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hasaacas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad8 May 2028
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 34 with 18 appearances behind him, and Hasaacas have to plan for both answers.
Market8 May 2028
Hasaacas have made a squad player available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Market8 May 2028
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Hasaacas could ask drops and the wages a squad player can ask rise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Mar 2028
The wait goes on for Hasaacas
13 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad6 Mar 2028
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hasaacas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Thomas Kyereh has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Hasaacas can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market6 Mar 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Hasaacas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kamaldeen Afful commits to Hasaacas for another 3 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Richmond Lamptey was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad6 Mar 2028
The step up is real for Baba Inusah
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Andre Ayew
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match4 Mar 2028
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Feb 2028
Luyanda Makhathini damages knee ligaments — 122 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 122 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match5 Feb 2028
No end in sight to Hasaacas's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hasaacas has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market7 Feb 2028
Hasaacas say no — this time
The offer from Heart of Lions for Felix Ayew was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market7 Feb 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Window shuts: 0 in, 4 out at Hasaacas
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Richmond Lamptey was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match5 Feb 2028
3 matches without a goal for Hasaacas
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match5 Feb 2028
No clean sheets in sight for Hasaacas
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces6 Dec 2027
Anger at Hasaacas spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market6 Dec 2027
Samuel Mensah hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hasaacas can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Baba Inusah is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Felix Ayew has a hand in both — 7.78
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.78, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Squad6 Dec 2027
A falling-out at Hasaacas
Abdul Ofori and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Hasaacas
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Timothy Atamenwan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match4 Dec 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Richmond Lamptey’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Hasaacas.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Nobody on the pitch touched Albert Adjei
7.99, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Hasaacas had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces8 Nov 2027
The mood at Hasaacas has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match6 Nov 2027
No end in sight to Hasaacas's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hasaacas has to find a result from somewhere.
Market8 Nov 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Hasaacas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market8 Nov 2027
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Richmond Lamptey was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Hasaacas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timothy Atamenwan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match6 Nov 2027
Hasaacas leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match6 Nov 2027
0‑2 to Berekum Chelsea, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Kwame Bukari
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.